Donald Trump displays fake TIME magazine covers lauding his success with The Apprentice at at least five of his golf clubs. The publisher has asked him to remove them.
“Donald Trump: The ‘Apprentice' is a television smash!” the big headline said. Above the Time nameplate, there was another headline in all caps: “TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS . . . EVEN TV!”
This cover — dated March 1, 2009 — looks like an impressive memento from Trump's pre-presidential career. To club members eating lunch, or golfers waiting for a pro-shop purchase, it seemed to be a signal that Trump had always been a man who mattered. Even when he was just a reality TV star, Trump was the kind of star who got a cover story in Time.
But that wasn't true.
The Time cover is a fake.
There was no March 1, 2009, issue of Time magazine. And there was no issue at all in 2009 that had Trump on the cover.
The subheads on the fake Trump cover are taken from a genuine March 2, 2009 edition of TIME which featured actress Kate Winslet.
While it's not difficult to mock up a fake cover using graphic-design software, whoever made this one sought out real Time headlines, to add to the fake.